Whenever I think of summer time, I think of the beach. Although I live right by the lake, I never think to go down and hang out! This summer I really want to take advantage of it and have some picnics and lay out and read.

That being said, here is what I would pack in my bag to head to the beach:

1 :: A cute and durable bag is definitely necessary! This Lilly Pulitzer one is perfect for the job.

2 :: To keep you hydrated, bring along an insulated tumbler. I love the ones from Starbucks!

3 :: Don't forget a fashionable towel! I am dreaming about this one from Design Darling.

4 :: It's essential to have some lip butter that also has a little SPF!

I have always wished I could wear rompers. I remember trying one on as a middle schooler (at Delias..ha!) and thinking it looked so weird on me since I was pretty tall. In my opinion, rompers look a lot better on shorter people because it covers up most of their body. When I tried it on I felt naked, like I wasn't wearing pants or something! But I can't help and dream about donning a cute little navy one around town. Oh and fun fact! By definition, romp means to frolic or prance around. Wouldn't you just love to frolic around in a romper? Ahhh ;) Now I just need to find some less expensive ones because these are way out of my price range...

SMU girls tend to agree with Reese on this; anything that isn’t emblazoned with Panhellenic letters tends to wear a girl’s other most important letters: her monogram! Monograms are a fun and classic way to make your look special, and whether you prefer a subtle touch of personalization or a bold advertisement of your initials, there are countless items that can be monogrammed. Get out your credit cards ladies (unless you have your number memorized… guilty!) because it’s time for some online shopping.

You can find tons of online monogramming stores, but MarleyLilly is by far my favorite. They have awesome customer service, great turnaround time, and really any product you could want monogrammed!

For the monogramming novice

Try an accessory that is low-commitment to get a feel for the look of your monogram.

A double wall tumbler is practical to take to class, and the small monogram adds the perfect touch of personalization without being too much. You could also try a small cosmetic bag for school or home, or a baseball hat for a pool day.

For every day

Once the obsession starts to set in, you will probably want monograms on most of your everyday items. Luckily, you can purchase almost any item monogrammed, and you can even find local embroidery shops to put monograms on items you already own, such as towels and tote bags. Here are some of my favorite everyday personalized items.

I felt like I was the last girl in Dallas without a monogrammed necklace until I got one for my birthday. You can also personalize rings, earrings, and bracelets.

This clutch doubles as a cross-body. Perfect for day or night!

Any of these monogrammed t-shirts can be worn with workout shorts or dressed up with a cute pair of jeans like Amy from Coffee Beans and Bobby Pins did. Love the white on white!

I also love my monogrammed scarf for fall!

For the monogram crazy

Some things don’t need to be monogrammed, but they still add a little fun to your day!

When Mason (who writes the ADORABLE blog Mason...Like the Jar) sent us a link to the following blog post, we just knew that our readers would LOVE this post! If you decide to make a phone wall paper using this tutorial, be sure to tag the photo on Instagram with #masonlikethejar! You can also tag us too (@MarleyLilly & @MasonLikeTheJar). And while you're at it, you should follow us too!

We might share a few of our favorites!

I'm not an enormous "do it yourselfer." I love browsing Pinterest and seeing all of the adorable crafts and ideas that everyone posts, but I never actually get around to doing them because ain't nobody got time fo that.However, like most people, I have my little board of things that "I'll make one day when I have all the time in the world to sit around and be crafty" and for my "I'm going to be the best mom ever" moments and for my "I'm going to have a super Pinteresty DIY wedding for like $50!" delusions.

That being said, I do love being a teensy bit creative, and when I'm bored, those creative juices flow a little more than usual...although let's not get ahead of ourselves because I'm nowhere near ready to hang up my lifetsyle blog hat and trade it in for a DIY blog because, honeychild please. But I will pretend, just for this one post, that I'm adorably creative and have a lot of cutesy crafty knowledge to drop on ya. But that's only because I was asked to ;)

A few weeks ago, I got bored and decided to make a little collage of my favey Instagram photos to use as my iPhone wallpaper. I posted a photo of it on Twitter, and a few people asked for a tutorial, so here it is!

Pretty adorable, right?

There's probably a much easier way to do this, in fact there's probably an app for that, but this is how I created the lovely little collage above.

1. Open Diptic or whichever collage app you use, and select the jumbo layout with nine photo slots.

2. Next, set the borders to {0}, so there is no space between photos.

3. Go through your Instagram photos and select 24 that you want to use for your wallpaper, and input the first nine into the layout. Save the image to your camera roll.

4. Clear all of the photos from your collage, and input nine more photos for collage number two. Save the image to your camera roll.

5. Clear the photos from your collage, and input three photos in only the lefthand column, leaving the rest of the spaces blank. Save the image to your camera roll.

6. Clear the images, and input three more photos in only the lefthand column. Save the image to your camera roll.

By now you should have four collages saved: the first two with nine photos and the second two with three photos.

7. Select the layout with four square photo slots.

8. Set borders to {0} like you did on the first one, and put all four of the collages into the frames: the big collages in the lefthand frames and the smaller ones on the right. Save the image to your camera roll.

9. Open up the picture, and crop out the blank space on the right. You should end up with something like this:

The whole thing should be roughly the size of your screen. I have an iPhone 5, so if you have an iPhone 4, the dimensions will be slightly off, and you might need to lose a row of pictures, but you get the idea. My screen is a little narrower than the collage, so the edges got chopped off a little, but just play around with it until it's to your liking.

I think it turned out pretty cute :)

If you make one, please tweet it to me or something! I would love love love to see your adorable creation!

directions
for filling:spray an 9x13 baking dish
with nonstick spray & preheat oven to
350 degrees. in a mixing bowl, toss
together the peaches, honey, cornstarch, cinnamon, & salt until combined.
taste test, and sprinkle in additional sugar if needed. pour the filling into
the baking dish.

directions
for dough:

in a smaller bowl, stir together
the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. cut in the butter chunks,
so that dough is crumbly. add the boiling water, and stir until it forms a
dough. drop small chunks of the dough on top of the peach filling
mixture.

bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.
cool before serving. and for goodness sake, serve with ice
cream!!!

A few days ago, I was perusing Pinterest as per usual when I came across a pin that said "The 30 Greatest Chick Flicks Of All Time." So naturally, I clicked on it because I just had to know what the lovely people of Pinterest thought were the best girly movies ever, and I agreed with maybe...a third of them? Most of them were meh movies from the past five years or so, but a few of them were spot on. Let's just say, "Valentine's Day" and "New Year's Eve" were included in this list of "omg best chick flicks everrr" so...there's that.

This list disappointed me, so I figured I would come up with my own. I hemmed and hawed, added and subtracted until I had a list I was happy with. So here it is, kiddos. The reinvented 30 Greatest Chick Flicks everrrr(ish)...according to Mason.

They're only kind of in order. Basically everything's a close second to Mean Girls. Because duh nothing tops Mean Girls. It's all like "I'm sorry people are so jealous of me. But I can't help it that I'm so popular."

1. Mean Girls

2. The Notebook

3. How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days

4. Titanic

5. Breakfast At Tiffany's

6. Love Actually

7. Bridget Jones's Diary

8. Dirty Dancing

9. Never Been Kissed

10. The Holiday

11. Legally Blonde

12. 10 Things I Hate About You

13. 27 Dresses

14. Somewhere In Time

15. Clueless

16. Bridesmaids

17. Pretty Woman

18. Notting Hill

19. 13 Going On 30

20. P.S. I Love You

21. Sleepless In Seattle

22. The Devil Wears Prada

23. Pretty In Pink

24. You've Got Mail

25. Sweet Home Alabama

26. A Walk To Remember

27. Pride & Prejudice

28. Cruel Intentions

29. When Harry Met Sally

30. Miss Congeniality

Boom. Go waste a whole week watching all of these. Except that totally wouldn't be a wasted week.

The Monogrammed Life

Welcome to The Monogrammed Life, a fashion and lifestyle blog owned by Marleylilly - Monogrammed Gifts! Thanks for stopping by! We hope you'll stick around and find some inspiration here. Peace, love, and monograms!